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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28755924">Sniffles</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/PrincessDesire/pseuds/PrincessDesire'>PrincessDesire</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>College Boyfriends [6]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Star Wars Sequel Trilogy</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - College/University, Fluff, M/M, Sickfic</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-01-14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-01-14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-13 04:21:25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,735</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28755924</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/PrincessDesire/pseuds/PrincessDesire</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Hux and Ren catch a cold</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Armitage Hux/Kylo Ren</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>College Boyfriends [6]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1738783</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>5</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>27</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Sniffles</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    
<p></p><div>
<p></p><blockquote class="imgur-embed-pub"><p><a href="//imgur.com/a/dRCxioa">Sniffles Fanart</a></p></blockquote>This adorable fanart was drawn by Lu-x-Niveus (luminoussketchbook on Insta)<br/></div><p>
  <span>Hux catches it first, just a sniffle on the first day, negligible and possibly just allergies. The second day his head is pressurized like the inside of an Instant Pot and every joint in his body aches down to the tiny knuckles of his toes. Ren tries to keep him home, but he hasn’t gotten all of his perfect grades by slacking off just because he feels cactus pinpricks every time he swallows. By the time he makes it back home, the fever has taken over, and he can barely keep his eyes open. He ignores Millie as she clamors loudly behind his lethargic trudges to the bedroom. He has trouble getting to sleep because of all the fluid draining into the back of his throat, but eventually, after some creative pillow-stacking and one attention-seeking cat bedroom eviction, he falls into a deep sleep complete with vivid dreams. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>There’s a glass of water and some pills on the nightstand when he awakens. He sits up to drink and a damp cloth falls off his forehead. He hadn’t even felt it placed there; he never submits to unconsciousness to the point of complete unawareness of his surroundings like that. He takes the medicine, finishing off the water in the process. He wonders how old the pills are and where Ren even found them. Neither man is the type to have a well-stocked medicine cabinet. They’re the idiots who endure pain thinking that it makes them stronger or some other macho bullshit that Hux, at least, is too smart for. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>By morning, Ren is in bed beside him bemoaning their fate and blowing his nose into their too-thin budget toilet paper. Ren opened the window sometime during the night and Hux is simultaneously cold and hot. He doesn’t complain. He’s afraid once he starts, he’ll never stop. He’ll turn into Ren, making every molehill a mountain, every stubbed toe an amputation. Instead, he microwaves Top Ramen for both of them. He passes Ren the soup in a mug branded with the logo of a law company that Hux has only ever heard of because its name sits inches below his coffee in the mornings; where it came from is wholly a mystery.  </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Is this the shrimp one?” asks Ren suspiciously after a snot-filled sniff.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Yes Ren, I’ve made you your least favorite flavor and kept the beef all to myself,” Hux says sarcastically. He twirls his fork around his bowl until he has a bite’s worth of coiled noodles. After he has some he sighs. “It’s not like it’s going to taste like anything other than mucus, anyway.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Millicent jumps onto the bed, pupils thick with focus on the source of the scent in the air. Her tail flicks in feline celebration of an impending meal. She will wait until they are finished or distracted, swooping in like a chubby hyena for the carcass remnants. Hux glares at her.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Wait, so is this shrimp?” asks Ren.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Hux growls. This impels his chest to percolate some rather unpleasant expectoration. He almost spills his bowl in his scramble to find his own scraps of toilet paper. Still hacking, he says, “No, dammit. It’s beef. It’s always beef because you are somehow simultaneously a ghastly specimen of physical strength and the pickiest eater over the age of three.” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I’m not picky. Shrimp is gross. They’re like… sea bugs.” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>It is not possible for Hux to want to have this conversation again less. “Shut up,” he snaps and sets to work on eating the soup. The sole benefit of the soup is that it is warm and the steamy liquid feels good going down his throat. He is not hungry and he can only taste the salt. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“You’re grumpier when you’re sick.” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Who isn’t?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Ren considers this. “My… Leia… She works while she’s sick like you do. She’d look after me and Han when we were sick even if she was too.” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“This doesn’t surprise me. You are a spoiled brat.” He has some opinions about his boyfriend’s upbringing and has intentions to give her a piece of his mind when they do eventually cross paths. If she had disciplined her son a little better, maybe Hux wouldn’t find himself so often having to play the parent in their romantic relationship. “Well, I can’t exactly hide how I’m feeling now that we live together. Stoicism is for public. I am allowed to feel miserable in my own damn bed.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Okay but you’re not allowed to take it out on me. I’m sick too.” The last bit sounds particularly pathetic as Ren’s nose chooses this time to launch him into a sneeze attack. Millicent, afraid of the cacophony of Ren’s massive expulsions, zips off the bed leaving only orange hairs and the rip of her claws on the duvet behind. After Ren’s red face emerges from the pile of toilet paper that it’s buried in, he glares at Hux and accuses, “You’re the one who got me sick.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“You don’t know that.” Hux can’t eat anymore. It’s good enough. Rather than get up and put away the bowl, he just sets it on a nightstand like he’s grown as disgusting in manners as his slovenly boyfriend. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“You got sick first so that means you gave it to me!”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“If every human had the same incubation times, you might have a point. As it is, your finger-pointing is childish </span>
  <em>
    <span>and</span>
  </em>
  <span> unfounded. Now, eat your precious beef ramen and go back to sleep.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>In retribution for Hux’s insults and possibly his transmission of this illness they’re sharing, Ren slurps as loudly as possible at the noodles, sucking the salty broth off of them with fake relish. Hux grabs Ren’s pillow and uses it as a shield against the noise. It doesn’t work well. He can’t breathe underneath it and has to come out again almost immediately. Everything feels stuffy and warm and even the air tastes like sickness. He gripes in his own head for a while, annoying himself with his own weakness until sleep finally finds him again, and like a hammer to the back of the head, he’s out. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He awakes to the small licking sounds of Millicent the scavenger. It’s disgusting, the idea that at some point he will be drinking from the same dish where that smug orange head went on a licking bonanza. He waves his hand, smacking her rump and a bit of the alarm clock, but it doesn’t dislodge her from the soup. He groans dramatically, moving from bed like he has rigor mortis, and lifting the bowl out from under her nose. In the kitchen, he debates what to do with the dish. Finally, the tall cylindrical trash can ends up winning the contest. He doesn’t think he could scour it enough to make him feel comfortable ever eating another Cheerio from that bowl. He takes the opportunity to go to the bathroom while he’s up, and by the light of the main room’s window, he can see how disheveled and awful he looks in the mirror. How he’d managed to ever catch a man that looks like Ren he’ll never know, especially in moments like this when he looks as though he should be begging to bum smokes off strangers instead of achieving highest academic honors. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Millie is grooming herself when he returns and the entitled thief doesn’t even have the audacity to make eye contact with him while he glares at her. Ren’s body is too hot under normal circumstances, but now he’s positively slick with heat and sweat; little wonder that he’d opened the window. “Ren, have you considered taking some of the pills you found me?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Ren coughs. It sounds painful. “That’s it. It was just a sample.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Well, that explains that. Just one of those little plastic baggied samples stuck to piles of coupons and ads for joining the army that they distribute to naive college kids looking for a cheap way out of the debt they’d just signed themselves up for. “Did you know you were sick when you gave those to me?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I’m trying to sleep!” Ren complains.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Avoidance of the answer gives it. Ren the thoughtful. It is quite possibly Hux’s least favorite Ren because he doesn’t know how to react to it. No one was ever thoughtful to Armitage before he’d fallen in love. The debt that it creates makes him uncomfortable. He doesn’t want to owe kindness. He wants to look out for himself and for Ren to look after himself, and they’ll just keep co-existing, but no, Ren has to spoil everything by being supportive and seeking support back. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Fuck relationships.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He picks up the now mostly dry rag that Ren had attached to his forehead as he slept and takes it to the bathroom sink. He rinses it in the cold water and then returns to his sweaty boyfriend. He pats at Ren’s stubbly cheeks, forehead, and neck with the cloth.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“What’re you doing?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Shut up. You’re supposed to be sleeping.” He leans down and blows over the damp skin. Tiny little goosebumps erupt on Ren’s neck. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Ren sighs. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>After folding it into a nice forehead-sized rectangle, he leaves it atop Ren as was done for him. “If you start hallucinating, I’ll fetch a fever reducer. Otherwise, just try not to sweat on my side of the bed.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Ren smiles wanly. “You’ve had it there before.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Yes, well, let’s minimize your revolting body excretions coming into contact with my space.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Hux deserves the wet rag that slaps against his chest. “Too late. That rag is soaked in my sweat. Now, you shut up and go to sleep.” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>It’s the first time that they’re sick together and, frankly, it goes better than Hux could have predicted. Their energy is too low for either of them to kill the other no matter how inclined their bad moods make them. They come away from it with the solidarity of having fought the same battle. Years later, when Hux is savagely attacking a page of traditional wedding vows with a red pen in order to create some sort of promise that doesn’t make him feel like a 1950’s virgin bride, he’ll come across the phrase  ‘in sickness and health,’ and he’ll think of two small pills waiting at his bedside, and he won’t cross it out. </span>
</p>
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